My weekend workshops at Crystal Creations...Beads Gone Wild

You've heard me enthuse about my iPod touch and iPad as I've incorporated them seamlessly into everything I do. They have advanced my techiness exponentially and I genuinely enjoy learning new ways to utilize their many features. Recently I've even read a few issues of MacWorld. Why hardly a beading workshop concludes without someone asking me to share some new digital thing I've discovered or some new app I've acquired. BUT, ever since the OS5 update, my blogger apps have become loathsome time vampires. Joyfully I'll share the days events, taking the considerable time to include links and photos throughout the posting, only to find that the entire thing won't upload or worse, disappears entirely. This has eaten up so much time that what used to feel warm and wonderful sharing of my magical days, ends up leaving me feeling frustrated and honestly, angry.
So, days after the fact, here I am, sitting at my computer trying to play catch up. I am tempted to look into wordpress or an alternate to blogger, if they do not remedy this glitch. I love returning to the hotel at day's end and making time to blog when things are fresh and immediate. If, from now on, because my mobile devices cannot be used for this purpose, I have to wait until I am returned home and in front of the computer to blog, I admit it just isn't going to happen. In that setting I have other demands on my time. If you have any clout with the app developer, please use it!

Eleanor felted and beaded with me the last time I taught at Crystal Creations. She recalled being in some discomfort afterwards from all the physical exertion. She was thrilled with the contrast this weekend, provided by using the Turbo Felting Board. So, she was able to be quite prolific without physical repercussions. Here she is seen building "leopardskin" felt.

She embedded shiny novelty yarn and will ultimately use this piece as a wall hanging. Eleanor is a very accomplished fiber artist and works in several fiber media.

We didn't confine ourselves to felt jewelry this weekend, though most everyone finished at least a couple pieces in addition to other felt projects. They wanted to sample nuno felting so I showed the technique of creating surface design around a skewer and then felting the slices into an open weave fabric. Dawn made her cane, removed the skewer and then, instead of slicing it she began to wet it as we had done for other applications. Discovering the faux pas immediately, she cut slices and placed them on the fabric. The gorgeous thing that happened is this:

I hope you can see the detail in this photo. While the center of each medallion is firmly felted into the background fabric, the outer edges are not. I loved seeing this happenstance. This is a technique I will use purposefully to that end. Fascinating. Thank you Dawn for your spirit of adventure.

Robin and Barbara are friends who have taken my workshops at the BEad & Button Show for several years running. They both made quite the effort to join me this weekend

at Crystal Creations and they were jazzed and productive. This is some of Barbara's booty.

Eileen felted a fascinator for her granddaughter, though she looks fabulous in it herself!

Liisa Turunen, the store designer and co-teacher with her mom, store owner Glenda Paunonen, felted several cuffs. You may recall me mentioning that she and Glenda said they wanted to make jewelry like in Cirque du Soleil. I still don't know what those pieces are but, Bloomfelt is a feltmaker associated with Cirque du Soleil.

Robin (left) ad Barbara (right) hard at work.

Glenda built up layers of color using the skewer technique and then felted a bangle. When it was 23 finished, she cut little wedges from the cane to reveal the interior. By continuing to full the bangle post-cutting, the wedges even out with the overall silhouette. Lovely.

Angela felted this cuff with fringe and then turned her attention to the felt purse shown here. Her construction is impeccable even though I dashed through the demonstration "felting around a resist", having added this to an already overly ambitious collection of techniques and projects for one weekend.
It was an amazing weekend of hugely creative, highly motivated people intent on using effectively, every moment we shared. I taught and demonstrated (and they created) necklaces, cuffs, bangles, felt beads, felt fabric, nuno, felting around an armature, inclusions embedded in felt, felting around an armature (purse) and fascinators. wish you could have been there.
Glenda spoke of felted earrings and similar projects she will offer in the repertoire of classes at Crystal Creations.